Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Netflix Version Took Out Sokka’s Sexist Trait, Leaving The Fans Unhappy(Photo Credit –Instagram)
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Netflix’s live-action series Avatar: The Last Airbender is facing the brunt of the netizens for changing a significant character trait of the Water Tribe warrior Sokka, who is also the brother of Katara. Ian Ousely will play the role in the upcoming series led by Gordon Cormier as Aang. In a recent interview, Ousely and the Katara actress Kiawentiio reflected on the character. Keep scrolling for more.
The Netflix series is adapted from the 2000s animated Nickelodeon show. It was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The creators were initially involved in making the live-action series but then stepped out of it. But all’s well that ends well! The series will premiere within a month, and the fans eagerly wait for it to come out as its trailers look pretty promising.
Avatar: The Last Airbender stars Ian Ousely, and Kiawentiio revealed to EW that the Netflix live-action adaption removed Sokka’s sexism from the series. Ousely explaining his character, he said, “I wanted to make sure that Sokka is funny. There’s more weight with realism in every way.” The Katara actor continued, “I feel like we also took out the element of how sexist [Sokka] was. I feel like there were a lot of moments in the original show that were iffy.”
Ousely agreeing to his Avatar: The Last Airbender co-star added, “Yeah, totally. There are things that were redirected just because it might play a little differently [in live action].” However, the fans of the OG series are not happy with this revelation as Sokka is a popular character who was initially skeptical of Aang saving the world and a sexist. But with time, it changed and outgrew that.
The fans have been expressing their displeasure on X as one wrote, “it’s literally apart of his character arc that Sokka learns how stupid his sexist views were and begs the Kyoshi Warriors to teach him. this show is gonna suck.”
Another said, “ironic as it is, you IMMEDIATELY make Sokka a less interesting character to watch by stripping away the sexism, its an intentional character flaw that the show acknowledges. Sokka literally gets called out for being sexist MINUTES into the first episode, it’s meant to be that way.”
One explained why the character’s sexist mindset is vital for the plot of Avatar: The Last Airbender and wrote, “Sokka’s sexism is literally how they found Aang. Katara got mad because of Sokka’s sexist remark and broke the ice glacier that freed Aang 😭 how are they gonna play around that.”
Another person said, “This is…. literally a huge part of Sokka’s journey?! This is implying that the original show was sexist when it was pointedly rejecting the things that Sokka believed through it’s narrative. This is actually incredibly embarrassing.”
Followed by one saying, “More and more stuff like this is going to come out about the show and we will all understand why the original creators of the Avatar universe left the project.”
And, “This is a part of sokka you just can’t take it out.”
Avatar: The Last Airbender will reportedly have eight episodes in the first season and is set to premiere on Netflix on February 22, 2024.
